BBC executives claim £173k expenses

BBC executives claimed expenses totalling £173,527.04 from October to December last year, down from £188,284.98 the previous quarter, it has been announced.

According to quarterly figures published yesterday by the BBC, the corporation's technology boss Erik Huggers logged a claim of £646.79 for a chauffeur-driven car in Korea.

Huggers required the car for himself and his team during a four-day stay at the InterContinental Grand in Seoul. In the previous quarter's expense report, Huggers claimed for taxi rides costing £638.75 and £538.45 during a trip at Palo Alto in California.

The BBC also racked up a bill of £3,561 for a month-long hotel stay in London for Radio 3 controller Roger Wright during the annual Proms festival.

A BBC spokeswoman explained that Wright's hotel room was required because he does not have a London base and the Proms often end late at night.

"Roger doesn't live in London and attends every single Prom of the season including the late-night Proms that start at 10pm," she said.

"Therefore, it is sometimes necessary for him to book hotels due to Proms running late and the need for evening and early morning meetings relating to the production of the Proms."

The BBC also revealed that its commercial arm BBC Worldwide spent £6,005.50 on a return flight by business class to Australia for BBC director general Mark Thompson last November.

Speaking about the flight, the BBC spokeswoman said: "The cost was fully paid by BBC Worldwide as part of a trip to visit Worldwide businesses in Australia, so no licence fee funds were used."

Over the final three months of 2009, Thompson declared a hospitality trip to chef and BBC presenter Raymond Blanc's birthday and a dinner date at the Michelin-starred Ledbury restaurant courtesy of consultants McKinsey.

At a cost of £113.34, he also took Sir Terry Wogan out for lunch before the veteran broadcaster departed his long-running Radio 2 breakfast show.

The expense report further indicated that BBC creative director Alan Yentob claimed for a return flight from London to New York in September last year at a cost of £3,381. He was filming part of his Imagine arts series for BBC One.